12 years/61 years ago today, two ladies became the first women to enter space for their respective nations. 60 years ago it was the first female Russian, Valentina Tereshkova, who was also the first woman ever to fly into space, while 11 years ago it was the first female Chinese astronaut aka a “taikonaut” Liu Yang. READ more about their respective flights… (1963/2012)

Liu Yang Women in Space: The Next 50 Years – CC 4.0. and Valentina Tereshkova – RIA Novosti archive, image #612748 / Alexander Mokletsov / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The two are very much polar opposites. Tereshkova was a former textile worker who had not expressed any particular desire to go into space before she was recruited into the program. Meanwhile from school, Liu placed herself on a path to being an astronaut and succeeded ahead of all others.

Tereshkova entered orbit around the Earth in the tiny Vostok 6 capsule for 3 days, completing 48 total rotations, and remains the only woman to ever fly into space solo, all points in stark contrast to Liu, who entered space along with 2 male colleagues aboard the far more sophisticated Shenzhou 9, before spending 195 days in space aboard the Tiangong-1 space station.

She lives very much out of the limelight, with details about her husband, child, and personal life remaining unclear. Tereshkova on the other hand is a member of Russia's State Duma—the parliament, and remains entrenched in public life, voting for controversial issues, and meeting the heads of state of other nations. At President Putin's residence in 2007, she expressed her desire to fly to Mars, even if it were a one-way trip.

MORE Good News on this Day:

Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois (1858)

The University Tests Act allowed students to enter the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge without religious tests (1871)

The celebration of Bloomsday, in honor of Leopold Bloom—the hero of James Joyce's Ulysses—was established (1904)

IBM was founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, in Endicott, New York (1911)

Bob Dylan recorded Like A Rolling Stone with session musicians Mike Bloomfield and rookie Al Kooper, whose improvised riffs on the organ became one of rock’s most recognizable sounds—and Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the greatest song in rock history, revolutionary at the time for being six minutes long (1965)

In a 3-0 ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that a federal music piracy law does not prohibit a palm-sized device from downloading high-quality digital music files from the internet for personal use (1999)

67 years ago today, Claude Nobs first successfully put on his Montreux Jazz Festival. On the shores of Lake Geneva, it was primarily a jazz festival, with names like Charles Lloyd, Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, Weather Report, The Fourth Way, Nina Simone, Jan Garbarek, and Ella Fitzgerald. By 1990, what had become the second-largest jazz festival in the world had expanded to multiple other genres including all manner of rock, hip-hop, and popular music.

Montreux Jazz Festival – cc 3.0.

Today, a quarter-million people come to the festival which features 11 stages, and 55 bars, hosting musical performances for 16 days. From the very beginning, the Festival’s founder Claude Nobs has recorded all its concerts using the latest technologies. Under the guidance of the Claude Nobs Foundation, this unique collection of audiovisual archives has been recognized by UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

Over 100 major artists have released live albums from Montreux performances; everyone from Alanis Morrissette, to Yes, to King Sunny Ade. (1967)

44 years ago today, The Blues Brothers with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd premiered in Chicago, where they shot the film. The comedy duo portrays Jake and Elwood Blues, brothers and paroled convicts who have set out on “a mission from God” to save from foreclosure the Catholic orphanage in which they were raised.

To do so, they must reunite their R&B band and organize a performance to earn $5,000 needed to pay the orphanage's property tax bill. Along the way, they are targeted by a homicidal “mystery woman”, Neo-Nazis, and a country and western band—all while being relentlessly pursued by the police.

Directed by John Landis, it also stars Aretha Franklin as a restaurant owner and Ray Charles as the owner of a music shop. It features plenty of great music, with performances by James Brown, Cab Calloway (Minnie the Moocher), Aretha (Think), Ray (Shake a Tail Feather), and John Lee Hooker, and the soundtrack LP sales went platinum.

Developed from the recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live, the movie's screenplay was co-written by Aykroyd and Landis. The songs and script, together with the destructive car chases, made the rollicking flick an instant cult classic. WATCH the awesome trailer with all your favorite scenes… (1980)

 

And on this day in 1967, the 3-day Monterey Pop Festival began, kicking off ‘The Summer of Love’ and securing California as the focal point of the counterculture movement.

It was the first major US appearance by The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and became the inspiration for future music festivals, like Woodstock two years later. All the proceeds went to charity as all the artists agreed to perform for free, including The Byrds, Grateful Dead, Steve Miller Band, Canned Heat, Mamas And The Papas, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, Ravi Shankar, Simon & Garfunkel, and Otis Redding. The entire festival was recorded by D.A. Pennebaker for a documentary and record set, which inspired tens of thousands of American youth to move to the West Coast.

And, on this day in 1998, the founder of Hyundai—a self-made billionaire who left North Korea in 1933 at the age of 18 to seek his fortune—returned to his famine-ravaged homeland driving 500 fattened cattle in 50 open trucks.

The offering to help feed his people made him the first civilian to cross the demilitarized zone without a government escort. Another 500 cattle were expected in later weeks along with a donation of 50,000 tons of corn. Chung was raised the son of a poor farmer in what is now North Korea. His extraordinary homecoming and donation were estimated to be worth over $10 million. (READ More of the story from the original 1998 post in Good News Network)

Also, on this day in 1978, Grease hit big screens with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John dancing and singing their way into American culture. A love story between Danny and Sandy set during the 1950s, the film became a fan favorite at the box office and fourth highest-grossing live-action musical of all time. Three songs from the soundtrack became top five hits on the Billboard chart.

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